It's a speed run of Super Mario, through to level 8, projected on a sidewalk. What's interesting in this video is that the enemy sprites continue to move around and be active outside of the normal 4:3 view frame that contains Mario. So, for example, when Bowser shots off a fireball you can watch it travel all the way down the sidewalk, regardless of where Mario happens to be.posted by i_have_a_computer at 7:23 PM on July 9, 2010 [5 favorites]

i_have_a_computer - yeah, I saw that when it was going around yesterday. Probably a ROM hack or something.

wow. watching the run-through of metroid brought back memories I haven't thought about in a long long time.

I remember when we got a nintendo. I thought it was amazing. My mom ran a day-care out of our house for children who's parents were teachers. one of the kids, Eric, his mom was a school teacher but his dad did reviews for nintendo power. When we got the nintendo i thought my mom ruled for getting video games for us, it only dawned on me later in life that she was a gamer. It becomes obvious in hindsight that the nintendo power subscription was for her :)

watching this run through of metroid reminded me of the maps of metroid levels that my mom would hand draw on continuous perforated paper(ref). I remember these huge continuous folded rolls of metroid levels that my mom would draw to track her progress and try to figure out as much of the game as possible. looking at the speed run and remembering what I can of her maps, I think she did a pretty amazing job!

She passed away in her sleep 8 years ago just barely into her 50's. I can only imagine what she would do if she could see these speed runs on this 'you-tube thing', let alone her oldest boy divorced and alone. I miss her so much, but I know she thinks this rules! thanks BlackLeotardFrontposted by Bohemia Mountain at 8:09 PM on July 9, 2010 [22 favorites]

I love this stuff, although I'm kind of glad there's not one (at least, not a link in the post to one) of Castlevania, which I think is still my all-time favorite game... for whatever reason, my mind's eye still imagines all the parts of the mouldering castle that you don't see. I always loved the part (I think in the third level) where the tower where you eventually confront the Count scrolls by in the background. Details like that really make a game for me.

Also: I always forget what a freakin' cool game Paradroid is. I really need a proper joystick to revisit my C64 youth.posted by usonian at 8:09 PM on July 9, 2010 [3 favorites]

Bohemia Mountain: She sounded awesome. My own mother would never have deigned to play something like a game. She tended to say the word with disdain dripping from her voice.posted by JHarris at 8:29 PM on July 9, 2010

The Quickman run showed me both a lot of things the guy was doing wrong (that's my particular speedrun specialty-level) but also a few parts where he was doing things more deftly that I have been. Good to know.

I remember doing this Pitfall II map by hand on graph paper. I spent quite a few hours in front of the C64 while doing it. Kids these days have it so easy with their newfangled internets...posted by Harald74 at 10:17 PM on July 9, 2010

Urrrmn... maybe I'm sleepy, but doesn't it look like the Metroid map is chock full of hacks? He gets the ball item at the beginning but he already has bombs? He jumps at doors and suddenly he can travel vertically through the map?posted by cavalier at 12:55 AM on July 10, 2010

Alright, low resolution was my bane. No bombs, but a shit ton of door hacks. Speed runs should hack the AI, not the doors! [cane]posted by cavalier at 1:16 AM on July 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

That Wolfenstein map is absolutely amazing.posted by Pope Guilty at 7:05 AM on July 10, 2010

Damn... what a great idea. VGMaps is an awesome resource. Maybe the first attempt of its kind to archive and catalog virtual worlds on such a level. I've been using their maps as resources for various 8Bit projects for the past few weeks.posted by codacorolla at 8:45 AM on July 10, 2010

>Urrrmn... maybe I'm sleepy, but doesn't it look like the Metroid map is chock full of hacks? He gets the ball item at the beginning but he already has bombs? He jumps at doors and suddenly he can travel vertically through the map?

He repeatedly uses a door glitch to bypass areas he doesn't have the proper item for. I don't see him use the bombs at all. He kills Kraid to get enough missiles to finish the game, gets the freeze ray, then proceeds directly to Mother Brain.

Wish more of these were speedruns...posted by neckro23 at 9:27 AM on July 10, 2010

The missiles thing threw me. Do you get a lump bonus of missile storage for knocking Kraid over? Bumped up to a certain floor value if you're not there already? Clearly my memory is going.

I was also thrown by a couple of the transitional respawns—after Kraid, Samus restarts at the entrance to Kraid's Hideout; after grabbing the ice beam, she restarts at the initial spawn point. I'm guess this is just forced deaths with lightning fast respawn turnarounds from some well-timed button pushing, but I didn't catch the actual dying bits.

Anyway, the metroid run is really neat but it probably would have been more satisfying to watch a slower but less outright hacky run. The door hack is some badass glitchsploitation but it's jarring and uninspiring to watch in action.posted by cortex at 9:33 AM on July 10, 2010

Yeah, the missiles made me wonder -- you do get a small lump sum, and it seeemd like he was killing everything with missiles, which in my experience gave you a higher chance of getting missiles spawned, but still... hacktastic.

Doesn't take away from the amazing full-map experience, of coz.posted by cavalier at 10:54 AM on July 10, 2010

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